Hi! I'm Sarah.
I moved here from the cornfields of Southern Minnesota in August of 2010. It took me about 3.5 seconds after getting off the ferry to realize I love Juneau.
I have my bachelor of arts in journalism and German. The part of journalism I enjoy most is telling stories about unique people doing fascinating things.

The city budget has been updated for fiscal year 2012 and it is balanced, but next fiscal year the Borough Assembly will face a $5 million shortfall that will likely affect public services. Administrators expect an additional shortfall of $2.2 million in fiscal year 2014.

That news was delivered to the Assembly’s Finance Committee Wednesday by City Manager Rod Swope and Finance Director Craig Duncan.

The Juneau School District Board of Education is still grappling with increasing graduation requirements.

The board got its first reading of the new requirements, as proposed by the Graduation Taskforce.

The proposal increases credits required from 21.5 — the lowest required by state law — to 23, increases math and science from two credits to three of each plus one of either, a total of seven credits between the two disciplines. It also includes one world language credit, reduces physical education and world of work.

The Juneau School District Board of Education will get its first official look at the graduation task force’s proposed requirement changes tonight.

The school board meets in a work session at 4:30 p.m. with the University of Alaska Southeast at Juneau-Douglas High School, room 206. It will then meet in regular session at 6:15 p.m. in the library, with the first agenda item of reviewing the food services contract with Nana Management. The recommendation to the board is to extend the contract for another year.

Census and other data collected by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development shows Juneau is an aging community and it’s population is likely to steadily decline over the next 20 years.

The City and Borough of Juneau Assembly’s Committee of the Whole Monday learned about population and employment trends in Southeast Alaska from demographer Elisabeth Goodman and economist Mali Abrahamson of the Department of Labor.

The final design for the Cruise Ship docks — a three phase project — has been unanimously approved by the Docks and Harbors Board.

The design has changed a little from the approval of plan 16B, which will move the two city-owned cruise ship terminals to floating berths.

Board member Mike Williams said the plan was discussed at their Capital Improvement Project committee and there was a lot of give and take on the final draft. He also saw a lot of foresight in the changes.

The Juneau School District isn’t likely to do anything differently if a House bill on American constitutionalism becomes law, as the district already offers what the bill seeks.

The House Education Committee on Wednesday moved forward with House Bill 5, which will require students to take a course on American constitutionalism in order to graduate. The course must include education on the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, Constitution, Bill of Rights and the freedom and ideals of American constitutionalism.